


Coffee Shop

by kinkyacewonho



Category: Monsta X (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Dany Im, F/M, First Meetings, Genderbending, Genderswap, Lee Minji - Freeform, Meet-Cute, fem!changkyun, fem!minhyuk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-30
Updated: 2019-01-30
Packaged: 2019-10-19 15:41:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17604155
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kinkyacewonho/pseuds/kinkyacewonho
Summary: Four times Hyunwoo was too shy to talk to the cute barista, and one time he wasn't.





	Coffee Shop

**Author's Note:**

> For the "coffee shop" square of Monsta X Bingo.

Every morning, Hyunwoo stops for coffee on the way to work. He has nothing against the local shops and domestic chains, in fact he prefers them for more relaxed occasions like meetings with friends, when he has time to sit down and savor the atmosphere. But for his morning coffee, he always goes to the Starbucks across the street from his office. 

He always orders the same thing: iced americano, light ice, so he can sip on it throughout the morning without it getting so watered down. By now, the baristas all know him by name, and know to start making his coffee as soon as he enters the shop. 

But today is different. Today, there’s a new girl behind the counter, and if Hyunwoo didn’t know she was new because he comes here every weekday and he’s never seen her before, he can tell because of the way she’s repeating each customer’s order back to them slowly, buying time as she hunts for the correct way to enter it into the computer. 

He can’t read her nametag from the back of the line, but he can get a good look at her. She’s got a strong nose, made more obvious by the way her long wavy hair is pulled back off her face into a ponytail. Feathered bangs soften her features somewhat, as does the friendly smile that curves up to her almond eyes.  

“Welcome to Starbucks!” she chirps when he reaches her. “What can I get started for you today?” 

He takes the opportunity to glance at her name tag:  _Dany._  

“Hi, Dany. You must be new.” 

She bites her lip, giving him a shy smile. “Is it that obvious?” 

“Only because I come here pretty much every day.” Hyunwoo smiles back, and Dany’s shoulders relax, some of the tension apparently easing. “My name’s Hyunwoo. I get an iced americano, light ice, every morning before I go to work.” 

“Iced americano, light ice,” Dany repeats as she enters it into the computer. It takes her a few moments to find everything, and then she looks back up at him, her dark eyes sparkling. “Perfect. Anything else I can get for you, Mr. Hyunwoo?” 

She’s clearly younger than him, if her doughy cheeks are any indication, but surely not that much younger. “It’s just Hyunwoo. And that’ll be all, thank you.” 

 

Dany isn’t there when he goes in the next morning, or the morning after. Hyunwoo doesn’t think anything of it until he comes back in Thursday morning and sees her behind the counter again, and his heart does this funny thing where it speeds up for no apparent reason. He'd blame it on caffeine, but he doesn’t have any in his system yet.  

“Hyunwoo, right?” she greets him, and he’s pleasantly surprised she remembered. “And you’ll have, uh...” 

“Iced americano, light ice,” Hyunwoo helps her out. 

Her cheeks flush. “Right. Sorry, I’ll get the hang of it." She punches his order into the computer. 

“It’s alright. You’re doing a great job so far.” 

Dany pauses, her lips parting in surprise. They seem especially pink today. Maybe she’s wearing lip gloss, or maybe Hyunwoo just wasn’t paying attention before. “You think so?” 

“Yeah. You’re really friendly.”  

When Dany smiles, her whole face lights up, and so does something inside Hyunwoo’s chest. 

 

“You like the new barista,” his friend Minji says when she joins him in line at Starbucks a few weeks later. 

Hyunwoo immediately goes red. “What? No, I do not. Where would you get that idea?” 

“You haven’t stopped staring at her since you walked in the door,” Minji points out. “And you turned about 500 shades of red when I just said that.” 

“I do not like her,” Hyunwoo insists. “I don’t know anything about her except her name and the fact that she works at Starbucks.” 

“And you think she’s cute,” Minji adds. “Well, there’s an easy way to fix that: talk to her.” 

“She’s at work and I’m ordering coffee. I can’t slow down the line.” 

“So you do think she’s cute!” Minji cheers, and Hyunwoo realizes he didn’t deny it. 

“Shut up,” he mumbles, blushing again.  

Minji elbows him. “So ask for her number when you get your coffee, or find out what time she gets off work. You can talk to her then.” 

Hyunwoo doesn’t ask for either of those things, and Minji doesn’t stop badgering him about it for the rest of the work day.  

 

The next day, Dany isn’t behind the counter, and it’s not until she’s not there that Hyunwoo realizes just how important his little interaction with her has come to be, a part of his morning routine just like the coffee. Instead, one of the older baristas who knows his order by heart is there, and by the time he reaches the front of the line, she has his coffee ready, and all Hyunwoo has to do is pay and he’s on his way. It’s more convenient, but Hyunwoo can’t help but feel like something’s missing. 

That feeling only grows when Dany remains absent for the next few days. It’s obvious enough that Minji ends up confronting him for it, stiletto heels clacking as she steps into his office. 

“What’s with the face?” she asks, perching her butt on the edge of his desk to sit. It would be a distracting view to others, since Minji’s short tweed skirt and thigh high stockings expose a fair bit of her thighs in that position. But Minji is like his sister, and even if she wasn’t, she is very gay and very taken. “Did lover girl turn you down?” 

“She hasn’t been there all week.” Hyunwoo takes a sip of his coffee, and Minji can’t resist the chance to say  _I told you so_. 

“See! This is why you should’ve gotten her number. What if she doesn’t work there anymore? Then you’ll never see her again and I’ll have to put up with your miserable ass.” 

“Not helping.” Hyunwoo glares at her over his white and green cup. “She probably just has the week off or they moved her to another shift. I doubt it’s anything serious.” 

“And yet you’re moping around like you’re mourning the loss of a love that will never be.” 

“What, are you Shakespeare now?” 

“Kiki’s making me read poetry.” Minji shrugs. “Just promise me the next time you see her you’ll talk to her? And I don’t mean ‘iced americano, light ice.’ Actually talk to her. Because you’re no fun when you’re gloomy.” 

“And you’re no fun when you nag, yet here we are,” Hyunwoo says, prompting Minji to stick her tongue out at him.  

“You love me,” she insists. Hyunwoo’s about to concede when she adds, “But you totally love Dany more,” and then he shoos her out of his office. 

 

Dany doesn’t return for the rest of the week, and Hyunwoo hears Minji’s words on loop in his head, like an echo-y flashback in a climactic movie scene. Maybe she is right, maybe Dany doesn’t work at Starbucks anymore, and he missed his only chance to talk to her. But just when he’s about to lose hope, he enters the shop on Monday morning and sees Dany behind the counter. 

She’s clearly gotten the hang of the job now, taking orders a lot quicker so the line moves faster. Before Hyunwoo has a chance to figure out what to say, he’s standing in front of her, and she’s smiling that bright smile that makes him feel things. 

“Hyunwoo! I’ll get them started on your coffee. Iced americano, light ice?” 

“Right.” He smiles back at her, falling silent as she enters his order into the register. He only has a few seconds before he has to pay for his coffee and leave. If he doesn’t say something now, he may never get to. 

“I haven’t seen you in a while,” he says, and if he didn’t know better, he could swear it looks like Dany blushes. 

“I was on the night shift for a little bit, so they could train me on how to close the store.” Her fingers stop moving, like she’s done entering the order, but she doesn’t look up from the screen. “You noticed I wasn’t here?” 

Hyunwoo feels his heart in his throat, but he tries to swallow it down. “Yeah, of course I noticed I didn’t get to see my favorite barista.” 

She does blush this time, Hyunwoo’s sure of it, the dark pink of her cheeks standing out against her pale skin. “That’ll be five thousand won.” 

He inserts his credit card to pay, and he can’t help but feel discouraged that she just gave him his total instead of responding to what he said. Normally he’d take it as a sign to give up and not pursue the situation further, but he’ll never hear the end of it from Minji if he doesn’t go through with this, and that motivates him to push forward. 

“Would you like to go get coffee or something sometime?” he asks, and then immediately feels his face heat up. “Oh, wait. You work at a coffee shop, you’re probably so sick of coffee. Maybe tea? Do you like tea?” 

Dany giggles, and it’s the cutest sound Hyunwoo’s ever heard. “I would ask if you say that to all your ‘favorite baristas,’ but I can tell you don’t because you kind of suck.” She smiles, softening the barb of her words. “But sure, I’d love to get tea or coffee or something.” 

The card reader beeps, letting Hyunwoo know he can remove his card, but he ignores it. “Great. I get off at four every day if you’re free then? I work at the office building right across the street.” 

“You can remove your card now,” Dany reminds him, and that finally draws his attention to the obnoxious beeping. He scrambles to remove it, not wanting to hold the line up any more than he already has, and Dany laughs again. “I get off at one. I’ll try to keep myself occupied until four and then meet you back here after you get off?” 

Hyunwoo nods, a lovestruck smile spreading across his face. “I’ll see you then.”  

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Come find me on twitter @kinkyacewonho.


End file.
